Journalists

During the course of its investigation into the current Gulf of Mexico oil spill, The Associated Press was given information from the then-office of Mineral Management Services that was not making a lot of sense. As millions of gallons of crude spewed into the gulf waters and the oversight by MMS officials on BP's well was being called into question, an anonymous source in that office told reporters far different stories than what they had been initially told. This anonymous source set the record straight by coming forward and speaking out, and suddenly the world knew that this was more than a mechanical failure; it was a full system failure.

Maybe it is time for a shake-up. President Obama's second-term staffing was always going to be a risk. He abandoned his first term's team of rivals for a closer-knit team of loyalists. The bet was that he was assured enough in the job to no longer need the in-house challenge and that smooth-running consensus would compensate for the loss. The bet isn't paying off. Overseas and at home, the administration seems besieged and befuddled. Obama is in danger of cementing an image of haplessness which would be hard to undo.

To the Editor: As you read the headlines and stories about the Republican Convention, notice the cynicism and the dislike that reporters have for the Republican Party. Keep in mind that most of them are Democrats. These are not journalists, they are political activists charading as journalists. Jay Thomas South Whitehall Township

Neshaminy High School senior Gillian McGoldrick doesn't think her principal, Robert McGee, is the "worst person in the world," but when it comes to allowing the use of the school nickname "Redskins" in the school newspaper, she thinks he's dead wrong. The same debate that Wednesday prompted the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to cancel the Washington Redskins' trademark is playing out in Lower Bucks, where McGoldrick and her staff at the Playwickian are in a battle with school officials.

To the Editor: The mission of peace by three Syrian journalists visiting the Lehigh Valley was far from advancing that cause. They prostituted their profession by stating that Israel has fomented the gulf crisis. Their charges are simply propaganda designed to divert attention from their own country's bad record of human rights. As a columnist wrote, "The next eruption of a volcano will be blamed on Israel!" This then can be compared to the outrageous remarks by the visiting Syrians.

To the Editor: The recent DuPont-Columbia School of Journalism awards prove that professional awards can, on occasion, be awarded to those who truly deserve them. The award given to Philadelphia's WCAU-TV news team which covered the MOVE confrontation last May was more than deserved. When the Philadelphia police ordered all journalists to leave the area and stay at least two blocks away from the MOVE house, WCAU technician Pete Cane remained in the basement of a building six houses away from the MOVE house.

Some trace it to the Willie Horton commercials of the 1988 presidential campaign of George Bu sh against Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Others point to a 1990 column by David Broder that strongly suggested that journalists needed to hold politicians accountable for the claims made in their advertising. Still others say that when candidates started spending $50 million to win a single governor's race, much of it on television ads, somebody was bound to notice. But whenever the defining moment was, somewhere along the way to the 1990s, critiquing campaign advertising became a hot trend in political journalism.

North Korea's highest court sentenced the two American journalists, Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, to 12 years in a labor camp. Both journalists -- they allegedly had entered that country illegally -- were found guilty of having committed "hostile acts" against the Pyongyang government. The North Korean government callously declared that these two women would be re-educated in a process called "reform through labor." Amnesty International reported this week that "North Korean prisoners are worked beyond exhaustion, often into illness and death."

It is time now for the ACLU to pursue its principles. Here is the invitation to the ACLU: Please file a multi-count legal proceeding in various courts and venues with respect to the lack of due process practiced upon American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee by North Korea. Is there anything on the ACLU's agenda that should be more important than this issue or will the ACLU neglect true abuses yet continue to challenge core American values when not taking any action at all with respect to the appalling actions of North Korea?

When Islamic militants kidnapped former Associated Press reporter Terry Anderson in Beirut in 1985 they demanded to know who his CIA contact was. The terrorists "believe all Americans are spiesparticularly those who go around asking questions," Mr. Anderson observed. It was a suspicion that cost Mr. Anderson nearly seven years of his life. Yet it is not a suspicion that the Central Intelligence Agency is willing to lift from journalists. CIA Director John Deutch refused last week to rule out having spies pose as journalists or using journalists to gather information if he believes it is necessary.

Few presidential candidates enjoyed better press than Barack Obama in 2008. He reciprocated by promising unprecedented "openness in government" and a new era of transparency. He has fallen far short of the promise. This administration has prosecuted more whistle-blowers for leaks and gone after more journalists than any of its predecessors. In a report last year, Leonard Downie, the former executive editor of The Washington Post, said the administration's efforts to crack down on information seeping to journalists is "the most aggressive" since President Richard Nixon was in office.

Hank Phillippi Ryan may not be writing about herself in her award-winning mystery novel, "The Wrong Girl," but there are quite a few similarities between Ryan and the book's main character, Jane Ryland. Ryan and Jane are both investigative journalists. "Well, Jane is a lot younger than I am," Ryan laughs. "One of things that makes the book authentic and realistic is that what happens to Jane could happen to a real reporter. I'm not saying everything that's happened to Jane happened to me, but it could have.

There was little doubt that the Lehigh Valley was "Boston Strong," from the St. Luke's Half Marathon in April to the Runner's World Half Marathon in October as nearly every big race in the Lehigh Valley paid some sort of tribute to the tragic bombing that took place near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. Chrissy Ribble, 47, of Allentown was in the finish line chute in Boston after stopping her clock in 3 hours, 47 minutes....

The military veterans, gathered to celebrate the nation's bicentennial, had made it through World War I, World War II, Korea or Vietnam, only to be struck down by the mist from a hotel's air-conditioning system. It was the first time the world would learn of potentially deadly bacteria that cause a severe form of pneumonia, later to become known as Legionnaires' disease. A total of 221 people staying at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, most of them veterans attending a Pennsylvania American Legion bicentennial convention, were sickened by the water-borne germ, and 34 of them died.

Carl Bernstein, famed journalist noted for the Watergate expose, has been hitting the airwaves and cable news networks recently, castigating the Fourth Estate. He asserts that his fellow journalists are not stating the obvious about the government shutdown. He maintains it's about demagoguery and it needs to be viewed that way; the media need to cover it factually. Bernstein said, "Republicans should be saying: It's about truth; it's about fact; it's about a wing that has no interest in the truth or governing or fact and it's bringing the country down.

It goes against the grain to go against the grain, especially when government authorities are slapping journalists around. I have spent my entire adult life nurturing an adversarial relationship, often bitterly adversarial, with government. It is the sacred duty of the press to act as though the nation's survival depends on contrariness. Nevertheless, it is time to swim against the current journalistic tide when it comes to some issues, such as the "right" of journalists, and only journalists, to make pests of themselves in polling places.

To the Editor: Has Paul Carpenter been waiting for 20 years to pat himself on the back for his journalistic talents? Regarding the articles focused on the tragedy of Three Mile Island in the March 28 paper, Mr. Carpenter has lost sight of the event and sees it only through his rose-colored glasses. He refers to the other reporters' questions as silly while he "rattles" about curies and isotopes. I seriously doubt that when faced with such a tragedy those concerned were interested in his chemistry jargon.

To the Editor: Paul Harvey must have had Paul Carpenter in mind when he devised the familiar phrase, "And now for the rest of the story." On Oct. 17, Carpenter's column said that Judge William Ford took away the children of a woman simply because she practiced the Wicca religion. Carpenter glamorized Wicca as a benign form of witchcraft. He quoted Judge Ford as follows: "When it's witchcraftwe would be irresponsible not to address it." Now, for the rest of the story. First of all, the order was an interim order, pending transfer to Bucks County for a full hearing.

I read in The Morning Call that a court ruled that journalists will no longer be allowed into polling places. I hope this is a trend that catches on so that eventually no one will be allowed in. George Shoenberger South Whitehall Township

C.J. McCollum has landed in Phoenix and starts his six-team, 12-day workout tour Thursday leading up to the June 27 NBA Draft (see my story in Thursday morning's print edition and online). The Lehigh graduate, a projected first-round pick, took time recently to write another diary blog for NBA.com. Here it is: http://allball.blogs.nba.com/2013/06/05/draft-diaries-c-j-mccollum -2/ When I saw the look on my Mom and Dad's face as I crossed the stage at graduation, I knew all the hard work and late nights in the library were worth it!